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AUCKLAND: New Zealand’s (NZ) Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield has claimed that more members of the Pakistan cricket team may return positive for Covid-19 in the tests, which will be conducted today.
Six of the 53-member squad tested positive for COVID-19, despite producing negative tests before flying to New Zealand, according to New Zealand Cricket (NZC) on Thursday.
“All six of the positive tests were players, not the other members of their squad. It’s possible they could have infected other team members,” Bloomfield said, adding, “At least four of those are acute infections and the others may be historical ones, but that’s being confirmed.”
He further said, “The fact that these infections were found when they were tested on arrival in the country suggests that there may well be others that we uncover during that day three testing, which we should have today.”
Bloomfield informed that the CCTV footage showed the players had not been abiding by the rules that they signed up to. “Rather than being in their own rooms which is the requirement for the first three days until that first test comes back, there was some mingling in the hallways, chatting, sharing food and not wearing masks which was obvious on the CCTV footage,” he added.
“This was simply members of the squad mingling in the hallways outside their rooms which was not something that was allowed to happen and not something that’s at all acceptable,” he asserted.
He said pre-testing people before they get on the plane identifies anyone with COVID-19 at that point, who would then not be allowed to travel. “However, what it doesn’t do is rule out that people may still get infected after the last test but before they board the plane, nor that they may well have the infection incubating,” he added.
The Ministry of Health has also given the entire team a final warning, after players were caught on CCTV breaching isolation conditions on the first day of their isolation.